Saudi blood money

A court in Saudi Arabia has demanded 300,000 riyal (Rs 9 million) in blood money from a Nepali driver accused of killing a Pakistani.

Jul 20, 2016The Brief

From the archive blog: The Brief

saudi From the Nepali Press

Nagarik, 6 July

A court in Saudi Arabia has demanded 300,000 riyal (Rs 9 million) in blood money from a Nepali driver from Kavre accused of killing a Pakistani in a traffic accident. Ramchandra Timilisina of Kushadevi will have to face the death penalty if he cannot manage the money.

Timilsina had gone to Saudi Arabia to pay off a Rs 600,000 debt and to educate his children. He has been in Hayal Central Jail for the past 15 months.

Timilsina has maintained that his truck had been loaded with cement from Jabirah Hayal Cement Company and was parked within the company’s premises when a vehicle driven by the Pakistani ran into his truck.

“It was their fault, but they planted an alcohol bottle in my truck and got me arrested,” Timilsina told relatives over the phone. In Nepal, Timilsina drove a minibus on the Panauti-Kathmandu route, and said he is a teetotaler.

The Nepal Embassy in Riyadh has been of no help, and Timilsina’s family back home is desperate to raise the money. He has two sons, aged five and seven. His wife Sarita has been living in a temporary shelter after the earthquake, for which she borrowed Rs 50,000.

Translated by Samman Humagain